Brent crude has reversed earlier gains to trade lower today amid weaker risk appetite as market focus remains on Thursday’s delayed OPEC+ meeting. Softer-than-expected industrial profits in China pointed to struggling demand to weigh on commodities.
- Brent JAN 24 down -1.2% at 79.63$/bbl
- WTI JAN 24 down -1.3% at 74.55$/bbl
- WTI-Brent down -0.04$/bbl at -5.08$/bbl
- The OPEC+ meeting is scheduled for 1PM GMT (8AM ET) Thursday according to a draft agenda seen by Reuters.
- OPEC+ has still not reached an agreement on Nigeria/Angola production quotas for 2024 according to Chief OPEC correspondent Amena Bakr on X.
- China’s industrial profits were 2.7% y/y in October, positive but well off recent highs (17.2% in August).
- Calendar: The delayed commitments of traders reports are due for release after the close today at 18:30GMT. The Jan24 Brent options expire against the 19:30BST futures close price today with the main strike of note around the current market at 80$/bbl.
- Shipping risks in the Middle East remain high with reports of a chemical tanker being boarded by Houthi rebels yesterday.
- Oil loadings from the CPC terminal on the Black Sea temporarily halted due to a storm alert, the operator said in a statement Monday morning. This was shortly followed by a statement from Transneft that loadings have stopped at the port of Novorossiysk.
- Kazakhstan’s oil and gas condensate production declined November 26 to 214,500 tonnes according to the Energy Ministry.
- Crude oil held around the world on tankers that have been stationary for at least seven days fell to 86.52m bbl as of 24 November, down by 2.9% from the week prior, Vortexa data show.
- China has issued an additional 3m tonnes of fuel oil imports quotas for non state firms according to the Ministry of Commerce.
- Phillips 66 began the restart of several units at the Borger refinery in Texas on 26 November according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
- PetroIneos has reported an FCC fault at its Lavera refinery, France resulting in flaring this morning according to Bloomberg.
- US gasoline crack up 0.2$/bbl at 14.77$/bbl
- US ULSD crack up 0.2$/bbl at 41.08$/bbl